barbara

I think she was planning on TCC at the end of July, so she's probably just waiting (and training there) until she can fly to Canada. Where is Shoma?

Pre-rotation evidently is worth extra GOE. Maddening.

Shouldn't be a violation - though the sock color is all wrong, and he is wearing something underneath, which is not traditional, but they'd have definitely gotten a violation for that. It's also too short. A kilt should end at mid-kneecap. But I'm just being picky. Love a man in a kilt. (Sure beats wearing a half Nazi/half concentration camp costume -that one should have been disallowed.)

His mother would have been there, too. Had to have been gut-wrenching. Truly, after seeing that collision (over and over and over), I wonder why there aren't more collisions. They must have some developed sixth sense for shifting ice position in the nick of time. There has to be so much consciousness of what is happening on the entire rink. When one skater has his music playing for a run through, the other skaters tend to almost hug the boards, or at least know where not to be. But when it's in those first minutes of practice I am surprised there aren't collisions regularly.

Which one is the "despondent" emoji?

Well, Australia closed. I am going to try and not slide into complete FS and Yuzu deprivation mode- at least until actual news of all competitions are announced. How long can the ISU hold off announcing cancellation of the entire season?

Let's be perfectly clear. Testing has zero to do with cases. Zero. If we did no testing at all, there would still be close to 140K dead in the US - we just wouldn't know why. The positivity rate is what matters. And, seriously, think of testing this way: If I don't take a test, does that mean I can't be pregnant? Can we avoid all cancers by just not testing? And - the source of the false narrative - if testing is pointless, why does the president get one every day? Now pushing kids going back to school as if nothing is wrong. Why educate people of you aren't going to listen to the educated ones? Enough on my rant.

Nevada is doing only marginally better than other states in the "red zone". Travel restrictions currently vary state to state but, for instance, if I were to travel to New Mexico from Arizona, I'd have to quarantine for 14 days. Nevada at least has a mask mandate (AZ does not!). We need a federal mask mandate. It is insane that we do not.

I wonder how set in stone this is - SCI bridges Oct into Nov - and there are only four other GP events before the final. If Yuzu (and Shoma and Rika) can't compete in two of the final four, they won't qualify for the Final - so would they compete in any at all? Perhaps - and I am being as optimistic in these uncertain times as I can be - JSF will recognize that and allow the senior skaters to go to SCI (?). Otherwise, what? No international comps until 4CC?

Not all OLY games lose money - the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City turned a profit. (Kudos to Mitt Romney for part of that and, yes, I wish he was the president right now). So many of the cities hosting think they have to have all brand new venues and that's one area where they could save. And so many of those venues are never used again. Perhaps slimming down and using existing venues would help. Or even choosing a city per continent to host and re-host every five cycles, so their infrastructure costs were kept way down. City/country egos just over-promise on spectacle when the emphasis should be on sport. I think they must be run in a more fiscally sensible manner or they will devolve.

Certainly he has sacrificed having a lot of intimate relationships. But that isn't at all uncommon for someone with a singular passion. And not just confined to elite sports. I know too many brilliant scientists who never took the time, in college and graduate school, to date or do anything not related to their research. For most of them, learning to communicate with another on a personal level was so foreign to them that even adult "regular" dating and relationships was too difficult to ever engage in. Yuzu has known love. He is well loved by his family. He has seen it. He knows what it is. And, I expect, when his competitive career is a ways behind him, he will have no trouble at all connecting with someone special.

Science Technology Engineering Math (and I'm one of those science geeks, too.....)

I am so gutted by this announcement that I can't even speak about it. Not that I'd have been allowed into Canada in early September (though I had hopes), but I'd have done what I could to go to at least one of the other CS competitions - because they are reasonably priced and in venues where I could ninja my way to the front row. Fingers crossed for SCI.

Agree - usually the Olympic Channel is more in tune with how important Yuzu is to them and to the sport. And "His American rival simply does not have that hubbub around him, enabling him to be more focused on what he is doing."??? How insulting. There is "hubbub" (that would be us) around him when we can see him compete, but no one, no one is more focused on skating than Yuzuru. We know he is virtually invisible to everyone outside of his training mates and TCC and is "enabled" to focus on his skating. He has said many, many times that his whole life is skating. It isn't, really - he is also so attentive to the people of Sendai and Japan and everyone facing tough times and/or disaster. He is the whole package.

Glad you are okay. I hope nobody lost their research data ay your old institute. And, yes, Yuzu's empathy and thoughtfulness is perhaps the very best thing about him.

OK- I can't locate the exact Instagram post - but you can see the different criteria for MVS on the ISU awards page (which I intend to not click anymore, period).https://www.isu.org/figure-skating/isu-skating-awards and "Honors the Single Skater or Pair or Ice Dance Couple who best managed to increase the level of popularity of Figure Skating with their fan base, media attention and sponsor appreciation." versus "Based on the results and experiences at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating individual events and Final, ISU European Figure Skating Championships and ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships of the 2019/20 season.......,". Those are not equivalent. I didn't do a screen shot six months ago when the voting opened and I voted, but i think we can all agree that we thought the MVS award was for he/she who increased the popularity of the sport, etc.. - not on a point-based, single year competition (which, incidentally, we couldn't have known until after 4CC which was the day before voting closed, and I imagine most had voted long before that). It doesn't matter, does it? The ISU is NOT interested in improving the quality or appreciation of figure skating. They are looking for ratings. I'm done with it.

Both are official ISU accounts. There's the regular website on the regular internet. And they have social media accounts - Twitter and Instagram. If you search Instagram fro ISU, you get several official ISU posting deals - and one is just the awards, You can tell by the blue swirly pattern.

I'm an old person and don't know how to do screen caps - but you don't need to. The before and after, the one and the other, are both up simultaneously on different platforms.

It's not him not getting the award - it's the ongoing politics of ISU and their general disrespectful treatment of Yuzu. Hey, I live in the states so it's really easy to get worked up about the lack of justice and people lying. Changing criteria is low, but not a surprise. And, ultimately, even though Worlds was cancelled this year (), the changing of the Sunday program after tickets were bought still irks me. Maybe if this virtual show bombs, they won't try and do it next year (after people have purchased tickets). We all know who the most valuable skater is.

Changing criteria, yes. I shouldn't be surprised. They change the scoring system for certain skaters. I guess I'm surprised that they are so blatantly changing things up to justify not giving Yuzu this "award".

That video has been reposted by about 20 different people that I guess I follow on Instagram (and I did feel I should watch it all twenty times) - which I just got off of and was surprised to see, in the "stories" section ( - you have to look for it, and it's gone now so maybe it was a promoted deal), there was a short clip advertising the ISU awards that show Yuzu multiple times, and not Nathan -which I thought was weird - but the whole bit/promotion does include everyone (if you search on the search page). However, the really odd thing is the description of MVS - it's not the same as what is on their regular website or what we all believed it was suppose to be "who best managed to increase the level of popularity of Figure Skating with their fan base, media attention and sponsor appreciation." On Instagram, it states clearly that the winner is (of course picked by a star-studded panel) "based on the results and experiences at the ISU GP of FS individual events and Final, ISU European FS and ISU 4CC of the 2019/20 season. This is the first time I've seen a reference to only this season, and only the ISU events. So, the ISU has really pissed me off now. The descriptions do not equate. This years results, scores, whatever, do not at all translate to increasing fan base or media attention or sponsors, etc.. I had hoped they'd release what the fan vote numbers were, but they won't - ever. And if they really looked at the GP Final, it's obvious who most of those fans were there to see (Pooh rain, signs) and it wasn't the eventual winner of that. In fact, it's downright mean to include that competition at all as our guy skated at a severe disadvantage since his coach wasn't these for the SP. And I think it's reasonable to assume that since they are basing this solely on 4 1/2 months, they plan on doing these awards again next year, even if Worlds 2021 is showing a gala on the Sunday - it's going to be the stupid awards again. Forewarned. And not the least bit happy.

Me, too. And he is so relaxed and happy.

And, because there isn't much else to do, I came upon another tweet I hadn't seen before . Lots translated stuff... https://yuzu-archive.carrd.co/

I couldn't believe someone hasn't shared this tweet yet - it's SO fun.